We (the Board and several others from around the globe) are kicking around the idea of having a partially virtual event for 2009, with some live sessions in perhaps more than one location simultaneously, and live and/or recorded (preferably live) webconferences/webcasts from other parts of the globe, bringing in speakers we might not otherwise be able to get.

I'd like to solicit some thoughts on this, particularly insofar as technology for the webconferencing/webcasting is concerned, and also for sheer logistics related to the time differentials and how we could work scheduling for, say, live events held in -0400 EDT and -0700 EDT with speakers in GMT, +0400, and even +1200.

I think this is an excellent idea. Perhaps charge a small fee to those who want to attend 'virtually' when they are unable to attend physically. It could offset the cost of the equipment and time used to set it up?

Why did someone not come up with this idea a long,long time ago; and, incidentally this is a similar idea that I have been kicking around for an "Annual Reunion Dinner" for the staff of an Development Bank in South America I used to work for.

Nothing before its time they say!

God willing... whenever this event takes place I will be there - either in person or virtually.

Is there currently a listing of the member countries that are involved at this time who will be participating (or has indicated participating) in the proposed events. And, the below attached being of particular business to my company:

Re: "IDB, World Bank hail Americas free trade initiative"

[....."The World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank ( IDB ) today welcomed an initiative launched by 12 countries in the Americas to promote free trade in the Western Hemisphere.

The “Pathways to Prosperity Initiative” was announced Thursday after leaders from Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Peru and the United States met in New York...."]

http://www.iadb.org/NEWS/articledetail.cfm?artid=4776&language=En

The thinking here is the employment/adoption of some of these same "tools" that are being talked about. Hence, the emerging business opportunities..... that can be presented.

Also, it might be "neat" to get an financial institution such as the Inter-American Development Bank ( IDB ) on board with us.

Will there be any topic of discussion on how OS/2 Consulting companies can benefit worldwide from the $700,000,000,000 financial package recently approved by the Government of the United States of America; also, given the fact that OS/2 once held its own in the banking and financial worlds.

With the cost of traveling and the economy the way it is, a part live part virtual makes sense and allow more to be part of it even though they can not make it to the actual event. I think a small fee - less than the cost of attending the actual event - would help pay for the virtual meeting needs.

This is still just in the embryonic stage, and we haven't even tried any hardware. If we have video conferencing hardware available at the convention location, that would be the best way to get the Europeans and Australians to participate, though the time differential may make it difficult for live attendees to gather together for interaction with the remote presenter(s) and (if present) remote audience.

As for attending a virtual event (see, there are two sides to every coin), we would like to make it as OS/2-friendly as possible, and toward that end, we don't as yet have many choices on the viewing end, other than web browsers (and many cameras require streaming media plugins and such on the far end for any real fidelity, unless using a Java applet - and then, many require a newer JVM than we can currently plug into Firefox or SeaMonkey).

Many hurdles over which we must pass to make such a thing happen...

None of the content has been set in stone. Sheldon, if you have the ability to find volunteers to speak on the topics you would like to see presented, please feel free to submit the contact info to the Speaker Committee. Warpstock is an all-volunteer effort and we're all pretty much juggling way too many plates in the air as it is. We can use all the assistance with legwork that we can get.

Thanks for your thoughts on this, guys. This is still a topic for discussion, and hopefully, we'll be able to phase some of this in for 2009.

Although we are fast approaching the end of January I would just wish to say Happy New Year 2009 to all fellow OS Users on this forum - particularly BigWarpGuy, LewisR et al... With that said, I now wish to say that during an very informative and fruitful discussion with a representative from IBM earlier today I learnt that resources can be available to facilitate the proposed "Part Live, Part Virtual Warpstock Event for 2009.